After receiving a property tax assessment with a 24% increase this year, Haysville homeowner John Eichelberger filed an appeal and discovered that his home, with no improvements, was being valued at what it would cost to rebuild, rather than its market value based on sales comparables. Armed with questions, spreadsheets, and evidence, he testified before the Sedgwick County Commission and later won a $60,000 reduction from his appraisal increase of over $90,000. His appearance before the commission begins at the 3:50:00 mark
Eichelberger says he didn’t agree with County Appraiser Deanna Aspedon’s rationale for his assessment increase:
“The appraiser advised that they were doing a “Catch Up” in my appraised value to correct the appraised value of my property due to the previous appraiser’s negligence in pricing it where it should be. However, for me, it made my house hyper-inflated rather than giving me a true market value of my house.”
A member of his Timberlane North HOA, Eichelberger researched other properties in his neighborhood and found that all had been appraised in the same manner: replacement cost rather than market value based on comparables. Valuation increases for the HOA ranged from 14-30%.
He produced a spreadsheet showing that most of his fellow homeowners in the HOA found the same success in their appeals as he did, noting that 13 of the 15 homeowners got the valuations reduced, many of which were significant:
“There are 10 properties which have received a $20,000 to $73,480 appraisal reduction which indicates a flawed appraisal process. Even though the county issued large appraisal reductions, the percent increases from 2025 still are above 8% which are far above the year-to-year appreciation rate for Sedgwick County per the US Federal Housing Finance Agency, Retail statistical data from Redfin and Realtor.com.”
His “Appraisal Appeal Story” details his efforts to find answers from receiving his appraisal to ultimately winning his appeal, joining other homeowners who have successfully argued their valuations were incorrect.
Eichelberger urges all homeowners to follow his example:
“For many residents, particularly retirees on fixed incomes, this could mean an unexpected incorrect tax increase of $700–$2,000 per year. It also drives an increase in insurance costs. Not to mention that those who did not appeal are now paying more taxes than they are legally required to pay, taxes and insurance. In a real since this is like the county is stealing from some of its constituents. Every appeal that leads to a change in valuation also indicates that if a person had not appealed the county would have missed their legal requirement to give a true market value on every house in the county.”
